1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotate-rotate type computerized tomographic imaging apparatus comprising pairs of X-ray sources and multichannel X-ray detectors, each pair of the X-ray source and the multichannel X-ray detector being rotatable in the state wherein the X-ray source and the multichannel X-ray detector face each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,352 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,359 disclose apparatuses having pairs of X-ray sources and X-ray detectors. In these documents, three pairs of X-ray sources and X-ray detectors are arranged symmetrical with respect to a rotational body of a gantry.
In an apparatus having three pairs of the X-ray sources and X-ray detectors, data, which is obtainable by rotating a rotational body of a conventional apparatus (having only one pair of an X-ray source and an X-ray detector) by 360.degree., can be obtained only by rotating the pairs by 120.degree.. Namely, the scan time can be reduced to 1/3, compared to the conventional apparatus. However, despite the fact that the total number of detectors is tripled, the space resolution is not enhanced. This can also be said in the case of the rotation of 240.degree. or 360.degree. of the rotational body of the apparatus. Namely, a line passing through a central point between the X-ray source and each channel represents sampling points. Even if the apparatus is rotated by 120.degree., 240.degree. or 360.degree., the positions of the sampling points are unchanged.